I get a kick out of buying eggs. It's a small and trivial thing, I know, but it's one of the things that makes me feel like I have discovered some of the marvelous secrets about living here. Not only is it indicative of how so many of the small things here are different, but it also makes me feel closer to my food and my little community.

Of course you can go to any of the large supermarkets and buy eggs in cardboard cartons of one dozen, each egg nestled in an individual cup just like you can NOB, but those eggs are not as good. Yes, it's easy, the eggs are clean, and all roughly the same size, but they are not as fresh as eggs you can get at the smaller markets. Eggs are not kept refrigerated anywhere I have seen in this city, and the ones at the larger supermarkets tend to hang around a little longer, due simply to the amazing volume that they stock. There is also a delay in getting the eggs to market, as they are washed and sorted and packaged.

The shells from the supermarket eggs also tend to be thicker. That's a great thing for transporting them, but I find that the shell is strong enough to make them difficult to crack, and invariably a shell shard pierces the yolk, which would be fine if I like my eggs scrambled, but really inconvenient since I prefer them poached.

I buy my eggs from the little tienda at the bottom of the hill. It's a great little store that has a little bit of everything, and I can actually manage to do the bulk of my grocery shopping there. They get a box or two of eggs in fresh every morning. The eggs are packed in layers in a large carton, not in units meant for individual sale.

Since the eggs are not already packaged for sale, you can ask for as many, or as few, eggs as you want. I think this is fabulous, because it means I only have to buy the number I need, and I always have fresh eggs. You can ask for the number of eggs you want or the weight, it doesn't matter. The eggs are priced by the kilo, so they will just weigh the eggs and charge you accordingly. A kilo is about 15-17 eggs and currently sells for $20MXN.

If you haven't brought your own carrier, they will put all of your eggs in small plastic bag and tie it tightly to keep the eggs from moving around too much, which is fine if you don't buy much else and are going straight home. On the other hand, if you have other errands to run, have a lot of other stuff to carry, or live more than a couple blocks away, odds are you are going to get a broken egg.

I have a couple of plastic egg carriers that I bought at a camping supply store. They are really handy. They have individual slots for the eggs with cushioning prongs to cradle them while being transported. They almost always prevent breakage. The only problem comes when the eggs are particularly big and the carrier won't close.

The eggs I get from my tienda are not as pretty as the ones from the supermarket. Some usually have some dirt on them, but hey, it's the outside of the egg, and I don't eat that part, so I don't care. The eggs are also not sorted, so I get some big ones, some medium ones, and some small ones. Again, I don't care. I just try to make sure that when I am preparing them I grab some that are similarly sized so the cooking time will be the same for all.

If you are skeptical about the quality of eggs, there is an easy freshness test. Put the egg in a bowl of water. If the egg sinks like a rock and lays on its side at the bottom of the bowl, its very fresh. If it stands up, it is old, but still edible. If it floats, throw it out. There is a small air pocket inside the egg that expands as it ages, so the more the egg stands up (tries to float) the older it is.